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Monday, 27 April 2015

Winning youngsters emulate legendary fathers

The world of motorsport has seen a number of successful second generation drivers over the years, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Andretti to name just three. Now it looks as if three more names could be joining that list of legendary racing offspring one day.

Last weekend at the opening round of the 2015 French Formula 4 championship in Ledenon, a young Frenchman by the name of Giuliano Alesi took two wins out of three in his first ever weekend of car racing.

Son of F1 and DTM race winner Jean, Alesi also qualified on pole position for the first and third races of the weekend, starting in 10th in race two as a result of a reversed grid. The 15-year-old capitalised on his excellent qualifying performance to win his first ever car race.

Retirement was the unfortunate result of the second race of the weekend but the following day, once again Alesi made the most of pole position to take victory in race three.

In a torrential downpour, the Auto Sport Academy driver won by over four seconds before the weather brought an early end to the race.

Fast forward a week and Mick Schumacher, also competing in his first car racing event, won in the German Formula 4 championship.

With a name like M. Schumacher, the 16-year-old German needs no introduction.

After placing ninth, first of the rookies, in the first race of the weekend, the son of seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher followed it up with a 12th place finish in race two before winning the third race of the weekend - his third car racing start.

After starting second on the grid, he took the lead on the opening lap and never relinquished the top spot.

Schumacher's Van Amersfoort Racing team mate Harrison Newey, son of championship winning F1 designer Adrian, finished the weekend with seventh, 13th and 27th placed finishes in the three races.

On the other side of the Atlantic Sebastian Wheldon, son of two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon, had a triumphant weekend on the karting circuit.

As revealed on Twitter by the 6-year-old's auntie, Holly Wheldon, Sebastian took a win and a second place in the two kart races he took part in this weekend.

Aged 15, 16, and just 6, the careers of these three racers are only just beginning, but if their performances over the last week are anything to go by, we could be looking at a new trio of champion second generation stars one day.